Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that he choose the late former President Umaru Yar’ Adua as his successor in 2007 because every other person that wanted the post were corrupt.
The former President said this during an interview with a private television station, Channels Television, in Abeokuta.
Obasanjo said “Even if you take your son as your successor, you are not sure of what he will do when he gets there. Don’t ever kid yourself.
“What do I know about any successor? What he presents. When he gets there, he presents it differently.
“We did our best, but if you say our best is not good enough, I will say, when it comes to your turn, do better.
“With all the people that are available for successor, what we came up with was about the best that we could think of at that time.
“One of those who wanted to do the job came to me and said, ‘Sir, I like your job, but I cannot do it the way you are doing it.’ Now, if he had told me that, should I then come and say, ‘okay, come, let me give you the job?’ He had told me that, ‘I like your job, but look, the way you are doing it, I haven’t got the stamina to do it that way.’ Then, what do you expect me to do?
“Or the one that I know that, oh!, this one, before he gets the job, he’s stinkingly corrupt. Now will I be able to defend myself before God and man if with what I know I give this job or I encourage the man to have this job?”